


Phoenix

by VarjoRuusu



Series: Tomb Raider (Reboot) Stories [2]
Category: Tomb Raider (Video Games)
Genre: AU, Angst, Canon Injuries and Violence, Character Study, Dreams, F/M, Fix It Fic, Flashbacks to events in Rise of the Tomb Raider, Fluff, How can she not at this point?, Lara Has PTSD, Lara is a Mess, Magic, Nightmares, Shadow of the Tomb Raider Storyline, sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29689734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VarjoRuusu/pseuds/VarjoRuusu
Summary: Set during the events of Shadow of the Tomb Raider this story follows Lara and her struggles with nightmares after the events of Rise of the Tomb Raider. Also there might be some strange apocalypse triggered magic nonsense going on, and is Jacob really gone for good? He's certainly still in her dreams.--She's running. Running as fast as she can but it's like her legs are caught in syrup. She looks down, behind, and there is a trail of bloody footprints behind her. It's dark, the sun an odd colour, blazing a sickly orange, leaving the world tilted on its side. She looks around but doesn't seem to know where she is. It's like an amalgamation of her childhood home, her father's manor, and the village in the hidden valley. Nothing is quite right.“Lara,” a voice calls, and she doesn't know if it's her father, if it's Jacob, if it's just her imagination. She closes her eyes and stops fighting, stops running. She sinks to her knees and waits for it to be over. She's so close to giving up, so ready for it to be over.
Relationships: Lara Croft/Jacob (Tomb Raider)
Series: Tomb Raider (Reboot) Stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2181591
Kudos: 1





	Phoenix

**Author's Note:**

> Well. This seems to keep happening. I started playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider and the same day I had 1500 words written, before I was even a quarter of the way through the game. This story is more AU and a fix it fic because you know what. I do not accept that Jacob is gone for good. Be warned, there is angst here, lots of nightmares and junk. But also fluff. At least I think so.

She thinks about him often, though she won't readily admit it. Peru is hot and damp, she's bruised and battered from the crash, her leg still aches from the rocks that trapped her only three days before, and the marks from the jaguar on her back sting every time she so much as breaths. She thinks Jacob would have had some remedies that would have helped, would have soothed the ache. Not that she doesn't appreciate Jonah's ministrations with their meagre first aid kit, but the painkillers he gives her don't even begin to touch the agony she's resolutely ignoring as she stares into the fire.

She found her pack when she was investigating the wreck, half submerged in water, but the jacket is still there, the old beaten and battered thing that Jacob had given her after he had pulled her from the frozen river. She'd kept it with her, carried it all this time. Sometimes she pretended she could still catch a hint of his scent, when she pressed her nose hard enough into the fabric.

It hasn't been that long, she thinks, since she watched him turn to dust, the first happiness she had since her father's death blowing away in the wind. But maybe is has. She takes a breath, thinking. It seems like just yesterday that she was fighting the cold and the Deathless, but really, it's been almost three years. And she misses him, more than she ever thought possible. Cradling the jacket close, she curls around it, her back to the fire, and tries to sleep.

She's not sure if she dreams, or remembers. Most nights she's plagued by the day her father died, running into his study to find him slumped over his desk, a bullet in his temple. She knows now he didn't kill himself, but was murdered, and yet it doesn't hurt any less to remember. She had barely been eleven years old.

_Tonight, she's in the cave with Jacob, curled across his chest with a cocoon of furs around them. It isn't the cold making her shiver, but the feel of his fingertips trailing up and down her bare spine. Her own fingers are drawing random patterns on his chest, and her eyes are unfocused, staring toward the wall of the cave. The feeling of euphoria is leaving her body, and as tired as she is, she knows she won't sleep. If these are to be her final hours, she'll find no rest._

“ _You don't have to do this,” Jacob whispers quietly, his fingers combing gently though her hair, free from its tie and cascading around them in brown waves. His other hand settles on her hip, an anchor and a reassurance that this, at least, is real._

“ _I have no choice,” she says just as softly. “Maybe this wasn't my fight when I came here, maybe I was just as bad as Trinity in my search for the Divine Source, but everything has changed now. I won't abandon you or these people to their…monstrosity.”_

“ _And when it's over,” he says quietly against her hair. “Will you stay?”_

_Lara pushes up enough to look at him, meeting his pale eyes in the dim light. He's watching her, his face soft, open. There isn't hope there, exactly, but there is a question._

“ _Do you really think we'll survive this?” she asks softly and half a wry smile tugs at his mouth._

“ _After a thousand years…I suppose there isn't much left to hope for. But perhaps for a moment I can believe that it will all be fine, that we'll defeat Trinity, that I could ask you to stay here, with me.”_

_Lara smiles. “I wish I had that optimism,” she whispers, her voice sad. She knows, as the Deathless Prophet, Jacob will survive and go on without her, but she doesn't think there's any way she'll come out the other side of this fight._

“ _Lara,” Jacob says softly, his hand leaving her hip to cup her face. They're both silent for a long time, just watching each other, eyes searching, then he draws her close, kissing her softly. Under the furs, their skin begins to grow warm._

Lara shivers, her eyes flying open as her heart races. The jungle is dark and the fire has died down. What was humid and hot has now become cold and clammy and she struggles to sit up, drawing the old jacket around her shoulders as she turns to stoke the fire. Jonah has fallen asleep, but she doesn't mind. She'll take watch for a while. She can still feel Jacob's fingers on her skin, but she pushes it away, tries not to think about how much she misses him.

They make it to the Kuwaq Yaku and they have a moment to rest, to breath. Thankfully the storm that brought down their plane didn't do much damage to the village, and Abby is kind enough to find them a place to sleep. They don't have any money, but Lara has been collecting gold coins and artefacts in the jungle, and Abby and the local merchant are happy to trade for them.

“You need to rest,” Jonah tells her when Lara finally returns from exploring the village. Night has fallen and she's restless, wanting to move on, even through her exhaustion. Her back aches and she knows she shouldn't be moving. They don't have time to rest.

She lays down, eventually, the hard pallet softer then the ground and a welcome relief. She closes her eyes and waits for the dreams.

_She's running. Running as fast as she can but it's like her legs are caught in syrup. She looks down, behind, and there is a trail of bloody footprints behind her. It's dark, the sun an odd colour, blazing a sickly orange, leaving the world tilted on its side. She looks around but doesn't seem to know where she is. It's like an amalgamation of her childhood home, her father's manor, and the village in the hidden valley. Nothing is quite right._

“ _Lara,” a voice calls, and she doesn't know if it's her father, if it's Jacob, if it's just her imagination. She closes her eyes and stops fighting, stops running. She sinks to her knees and waits for it to be over. She's so close to giving up, so ready for it to be over._

“ _Lara.”_

_A hand on her face and she gasps, her eyes flying open to meet a light green gaze. This is different, she's never dreamed about him like this. It's always been a memory, a replay of the few days they had, the scant moments they shared. She's never seen him here in her nightmares, gazing at her as if she was the most important thing on earth. She can feel the tears on her cheeks as she leans into his hand, her own raising to hold it to her face. She sobs, brokenhearted, shaking her head._

“ _I don't know what to do,” she says, gasps. “All I ever wanted to do was to prove that my father was right, that there is something else out there, some higher power. I wanted to prove he didn't die for nothing. I wanted to destroy Trinity for destroying him, for hurting you and your people, for hurting everyone they've ever hurt. And now I've destroyed the world.”_

“ _There's still time to stop it,” Jacob says kindly, brushing her fringe out of her eyes. “You just have to believe.”_

“ _I've lost so much,” she says, and he hums against her hair, wrapping her in his arms, and all around them is silent._

When she wakes in the morning she groans as she sits up. She is still sore, still bruised, but something has changed. She pushes the thin blanket aside, unwraps the bandages around her thigh. Her cuts have healed, leaving thin scars.

“It can't be,” she says quietly, standing and pulling her cargo pants on. She goes to the corner of the room that's separated by a thin corrugated metal wall and looks at herself in the filthy mirror. Slowly, she pulls her top off, turning to see rows of crisscrossed pink scars across her back, and a row of healed tooth marks along the back of her neck and shoulder.

Gasping, she pulls her hair out of the way, trying to see the marks better. She pushes away her bra straps, shoving it down her arms to see the extent of her new scars. She hadn't seen the wound before, and now that she sees what remains, she knows she should have been dead. She should never have survived that jaguar attack. But now, the cuts are gone. Months of healing have happened over night and she has no explanation at all, aside from her dream. Jonah's voice calls her from outside and she can't think about it now, tugging her filthy clothes back on. She has a temple to find, and a world to save.

She's barely found the hidden door before she comes across Trinity's thugs, with their guns and their explosives, as they try to blast their way into the hidden temple. She kills most of them, but some…some are already dead when she reaches them. They've woken something in the tunnels, and she shivers as she sees the blood painting the jungle floor, reminded of the Deathless, the guardians. She knows there is something else at work here, and by the time she solves the puzzles and fights her way back out of the jungle to Kuwaq Yaku, she can't shake the feeling that this was all a mistake, the biggest mistake of her life.

She's gained new cuts and bruises in the temple, though she narrowly avoided the pit of venomous snakes. Jonah insists that she rests, before going through the second hidden tunnel in the old ruins, and so for a second night, she curls on the hard pallet in Abby's back room, a thin blanket spread over her shoulders. She doesn't want to close her eyes, because every time she does her imagination fills in what's coming for her out of the darkness. It's a combination of the Oni and the Deathless, but even fouler, and she's terrified.

_She's screaming, not sure when she crossed from waking to sleep, but they're closing in around her and the sun is burning itself up. She can't see the sky, obscured by smoke and ash, and all around her is the stench of death and the cries of the dying._

“ _Lara, it's all right, you're safe,” he whispers and Lara sobs, trying not to scream again as he pulls her close._

“ _This is a dream,” she says, her face pressed into his jacket. He smells of smoke and ash. “None of it is real.”_

“ _How do you know?” he asks quietly and Lara sobs harder._

“ _I just want it to stop,” she says. “I want everything to stop. I'm not strong enough for this.”_

“ _Lara,” he says, taking her face between his hands and forcing her to meet his eyes. “You are strong enough for anything.”_

“ _No,” she sobs and he holds her closer. She wonders when she started dreaming the future, dreaming the end of the world. She's lost track of the days since Mexico._

Somehow, when she wakes, it's morning, and she shakes the dreams away and struggles to her feet. They're growing clearer, more vivid, more real, but there isn't time to worry about that now. She has to stop the apocalypse that she started, and vivid dreams will have to wait.

The trials are almost easy, after everything she's already been through. But when she steps out into the sunlight and sees the Hidden City, it takes her breath away. She never expected to find people here, she never expected to find that Trinity was an ancient cult, sewn right into the mythology of this place, into it's culture. She sees a darkness in Unuratu's eyes that she recognises in herself. Sees the pain of loss and sadness, and feels something kindred. Unuratu seems to see the same in her, and they agree to work together to stop the cult, to stop Trinity.

Paititi is more beautiful than any place she's ever seen before. The people are kind, and they know nothing of the outside world. There is something magical about someplace so hidden. In Siberia, they remain tucked away in their valley, but they do know of the modern world, and people sometimes spend years away from the valley before returning, bringing knowledge and new technology with them. She had spent many hours talking to Sofia, in the days that followed Jacob's death, learning more about them. Sofia had even asked if she wanted to stay, but Lara hadn't had the heart to say yes.

She sits with Unuratu for a long time that evening, trading stories and tales, and she learns some of the history of Paititi. When she can no longer keep her eyes open, Unuratu offers her a place to sleep, warm food, and even a hot bath. Clean for the first time in what feels like weeks, and feeling almost safe, she lets herself drift off to sleep in the small house they've given her, warm blankets wrapped around her bare skin, her dress lying nearby and her own clothes hanging across a wooden frame to dry.

_They're in the cave again, his skin burning hers and Lara moans, her head thrown back as he kisses down the centre of her chest. Her hands are buried in his hair and she forgets, forgets everything in her waking life to get lost in this one memory. She shivers as the furs fall to the side, exposing her bare skin to the cold air. She looks down, sees Jacob run a hand over her thigh, and there, a crisscross of pale scars and she feels like she's just been hit with an electric shock. She scrambles away, pulling her jacket close to cover heselfr, watching him now with wary eyes. She didn't have those scars the one, the only time he put his hand on her thigh like that._

“ _What is this?” she demands, and he watches her quietly, not offering an answer. “This isn't real, this isn't my memory,” she says, trying to convince herself she's only dreaming._

“ _Reality is what we make of it, Lara,” Jacob speaks softly and Lara looks at him. He looks exactly as she remembers, his own scars a patchwork across his chest, hair falling in his eyes, hiding the pain and sorrow he carries there. The fur is pulled over his hips, covering him from the waist down, but she still remembers. She spent the entire night memorising his body, knowing she would likely never see him again._

“ _My wounds,” she says quietly. “From the cave-in, from the jaguar. They healed, so quickly. Like when you healed Jonah. I don't understand, you're gone. When I destroyed the Divine Source, you died.”_

“ _Lara, can you accept that there is more to this world, that there is a higher power, higher at least, than humans, without proof? Can you accept, can you have faith, that not everything can be explained by humans as they are today?” he asks and Lara stares. She's never been a faith driven person, and she's not sure she knows how._

“ _I don't know,” she whispers softly, and Jacob smiles sadly._

“ _Would you try? For me?” he asks and cautiously she moves forward, back to the makeshift bed of furs._

_Reaching out she puts her hand over his chest, feeling his warmth and his steady heartbeat under her palm. He feels alive, real, but her mind tells her it's not possible. This is a dream and none of this is really here. She doesn't know what to do. Jacob takes her hand and brings it to his face, pressing a lingering kiss against her palm._

When she opens here eyes the sun is shining brightly and her world is shaken. She tries to tell herself it was just a dream, but somehow she's not so sure. It's like she can feel him there, lingering. She can feel his presence, steady, strong. She feels like it's the only thing keeping her upright.

She takes the path and finds the Silver Serpent, a key, Unuratu tells her. She tries to remember what her mission is here, but seeing Etzli taken before her eyes has shaken her and she wants nothing more than to get the boy back. Unuratu and her people will find him, though, and she must go on and find the box. She must face what lies in the depths of the catacombs.

She thought they would be harder to kill, somehow, but when it comes to it, they die just as easily as the other monsters she's faced. She cuts them down, she works through the puzzle of the ancient mechanism and opens the door. She is caught then, she knows, as they converge behind her, a woman that must once have been beautiful at their head, her silver teeth shining. She watches Lara, and then the door rolls closed and it's like a weight has lifted. She's passed their tests and entered the vault, and now the box is hers to retrieve. Only it's not there. It's already been stolen and the ground begins to shake beneath her feet and the only way she makes it back out is sheer determination, nearly drowning in the tunnels before she makes it into the sunshine of Paititi.

A fisherman pulls her from the water, calling to his companions to help him. They carry her to a hidden cavern, and she only sees flashes of the sky, of worried faces, whispers of _Ixik_. She's exhausted, barely able to stay awake. Jonah and Uchu are bending over her, she thinks, but their voices are dim and far away. Something is in her hand and when she struggles to look, he's sitting there beside her, hands wrapped around hers.

She's given up trying to decipher what's real and what isn't, and whether Jacob is here or not no longer matters. She can feel him here with her and it's a comfort, a comfort she longs for. She shuts her eyes and knows no more.

When she wakes again, the sky outside is dark, though she cannot see it, only the dim glow of flickering torches. She feels rested, strangely settled, and when she sits up there is little pain. She accepts food from Jonah as he tells her of their plan to rescue Unuratu, and she offers to sneak in and clear the way for them. She doesn't even think twice. Perhaps along the way she will discover what happened to the box, but right now Unuratu is more important to these people. They'll need a leader if they're going to fight against Trinity and win. She takes the armour from Uchu and dons it, looking over herself as she puts the blue dress aside, now stained with mud and dirt. She's no longer surprised to find fresh scars where there should be cuts and scrapes. She still doesn't understand, but maybe that's part of faith. Not understanding.

The guards don't question her as she sneaks through the higher city and into the prison. She makes her way around the cliffs and into Unuratu's cell, convincing the Queen to follow her, to help her people. They make it out, make it to the next clue, when the unthinkable happens and the next thing Lara knows, she's handing the leader's amulet to Etzli. She wants to scream and cry for Unuratu's loss, for a friendship she never had the chance to cultivate, but Etzli is strong in the face of loss, so she must be too.

Jonah has a boat ready and they head down river, back toward Kuwaq Yaku. She is losing hope, exhaustion tugging at her, then she hears the chopper in the distance and it's like Siberia all over again. Diving below the water doesn't stop the bullets tearing past her and one rips through her arm. She nearly screams and inhales water, but she bites her lip instead, swimming for the bank, letting the current pull her. When she washes up on shore she almost sees him there, pulling her from the water, but then he's gone in the flash of a rifle light and she suddenly has the strength to fight for her life one more time.

She feels sick as she sneaks through the jungle, killing every Trinity soldier that comes across her path. So much death, so much blood. She never wanted to make this choice. She never wanted to be this killer. Rorke is on her radio now, and she imagines his face as she plunges her knife into his heart, lets that anger carry her. When he tells her that Jonah is dead, something in her snaps. When she falls from the tower she wonders if this is the moment she lets it all end.

_'Sometimes I feel like I have to keep going, and if I don't, I'll let everyone down.'_

She breaks the surface, her heart hard as stone and her mind silent. The only thought left is to _get to Rorke._ There isn't room for anything else, not anymore. She picks up the gun from the man she just _slaughtered_ and she does what she's become an expert at. She kills.

There are barrels everywhere and most of them explode with a few well placed bullets, and soon there is nothing but fire around her. A stray piece of shrapnel catches the chopper and it crashes in a fireball of screams as men around her fall to her bullets. Rorke is gone, fled like a coward, and when it's over she sinks to her knees in the middle of the destruction. A sound behind her and there … there is Jonah. Alive, unharmed. And everything comes rushing back.

She looks at the destruction around her with new eyes, sees what she did when she thought her friend was dead. They've been through so much together, Yamatai, Siberia, she can't lose him now. The thought of having lost him was too much for her mind to handle, after everything. After losing her mother, her father, Sam, Alex, Roth, _Jacob._ She broke, and she can never take it back.

Jonah bandages her arm, talking to her, until her mind starts again and she realises what the clue really meant. He helps her to the road, finds a truck that's still running, and drives them back to Kuwaq Yaku, where Abby gasps at their state, but doesn't ask questions. Lara is too tired to care that she is filthy, or in need of more medical attention than Jonah can give her out here, and she sinks onto the pallet that has become hers and sleeps.

“ _You have to forgive yourself,” he says softly and she shakes her head._

_They're standing in her old home, at her favourite window, looking out over the railing to the gardens below, the French doors thrown open. She's wearing a dress, something she had as a girl, but in her size now, and she picks at the blue fabric for a moment, her eyes dull._

“ _Lara,” Jacob says, laying a hand on her shoulder and forcing her to turn. She winces, it's the arm that took the bullet. Seeing it, Jacob covers the wound with his hand and murmurers under his breath. The wound stings, and she hisses, but when he takes his hand away there is a neat scar in it's place and the pain is gone. She doesn't even question how anymore, just accepts it._

“ _How can I forgive myself?” she asks. “I've killed so many people, done so much damage to the world. I've been so stupid.”_

“ _Lara, you saw what I did. Maybe it was a thousand years ago, but you saw the damage I did and the destruction I cause. Maybe I've had more years to come to terms with forgiving myself, but you don't have that kind of time. You have to end this, right the wrongs done to the world. You have to save it.”_

“ _But what if I can't?” she sobs, self doubt crippling her. She's so tired, so broken. She aches, even though her cuts and bruises are once more almost healed. “What if all this pain and suffering is for nothing? I can never save the people that I love, they're all taken away from me!”_

_Jacob pulls her close, holding her as she cries, her hands gripping his shirt tightly. He rocks her back and forth gently, swaying with the motion of the earth, and finally she has no more tears left._

“ _I can't lose anyone else.”_

It's that thought that's at the forefront of her mind when she hands the box over to Dominguez. She can see it playing through her mind, see them killing Jonah because she won't give it up, so she does. Her heart just can't take it anymore. Maybe she's condemning the world to destruction, condemning thousands of others to die, or to lose the ones they love, but she's too broken now to suffer that lose again. Jonah is all she has left.

The village is all but destroyed when the volcano triggers a massive mudslide, but thanks to Abby and one very god fearing sister, most of the villagers have been convinced to move to higher ground when they started to see the smoke rise and the ashes falling. Abby leads the people back toward Kuwaq Yaku where they will be offered shelter, and she and Jonah find a working boat and head back upriver to Paitit.

Etzli is devastated that they don't have the box, but he rallies soon enough. They will change the plan, that's all. They don't need to do much different. Just move a little faster. They have two days until the ritual is complete, their spies have told them that much, and Lara nearly collapses onto one of the piles of sleeping furs deep in the cave. She knows Jonah is watching her, she knows he sees her new scars and lack of open wounds and he's confused. But he doesn't ask.

_She's trapped. Locked in a cage. Locked in a prison. She's in Siberia, and Jacob is in the cell behind her. She looks around, recognizing the old gulag, and she sighs. Her hands are cuffed and though she works at her hairpin to pick the lock, her heart isn't in it. She doesn't want to relive this dream._

“ _Is this better?”_

_She spins around and they're in the cave, standing across the small space from one another. Jacob is dressed like he was in her home, in her last dream. A crimson shirt, worn bluejeans, and an old jacket she thinks belonged to her father, one of his field jackets. She smiles at the thought that she would give it to Jacob. It was always her favourite._

“ _This is you, isn't it? This isn't a dream, it's something else,” she says quietly and he half nods, half shrugs._

“ _Faith, Lara,” is all he says and she sighs. She sinks down to the ground and sighs, drawing her knees up to her chest and holding them close._

“ _Can faith move mountains?” she asks and he comes to sit beside her, shoulders pressing together._

“ _I've heard tell it can,” he says softly and she chuckles without humour._

“ _This is a big mountain,” she says. She's not sure if she's talking about their task, or her guilt, or if it's a mixture of both. Either way, they'll have to do the impossible._

The path into the temple is treacherous, but somehow she makes it. There are pockets of lava everywhere and she suspects her lungs are never going to be the same after this, if she survives at all. She shoots the last of her rope across a cavern and slides down it, landing roughly and coming face to face with the same woman who had pursued her in the tunnels before. Suddenly she understands, and an alliance is made. The creatures are on her side now and for the first time in days she feels something like hope. This will be the end of Trinity, this will be revenge.

She makes her way to the alter, through fire and crumbling rock and a hail of bullets. She only wishes she had been the one to end Rorke, but it was satisfying none the less to see him ripped apart by the Crimson Fire. Now there is nothing standing in the way between them and Dominguez. Amaru.

It burns when she pulls the dagger away from him, her whole arm glowing with power as she screams. She interrupted the ritual and the power of the sun was transferring into her, more and more every time she lands the blade. She feels inhuman, and maybe she is. But when the dagger sinks in the last time, and he begs her to protect Paititi, she feels all too human, all too lost. Light engulfs her and she is standing in a white fog, blinking against the brightness of day.

She hears laughter as she looks around, then a voice, young, a child. Then she hears her father. The mist clears, and there they are. Her mother, her father, and there she is, a little girl, happy, joyful. She looks down at the dagger in her hands.

_'The power to change the world.'_

_'If you had that power, what would you do?'_

She looks up at her family, then she looks beyond them. Jacob stands by the gate, smiling softly. She has the power, she could change everything. But she won't. It's not her choice to make. The fate of the world can't be in the hands of one person.

“Goodbye mum,” she whispers, a tear rolling down her cheek. “Goodbye dad.”

She smiles at Jacob, who simply nods, and she closes her eyes. When she opens them, her hands are glowing and the Crimson Fire stands before her. She holds the dagger out and nods.

When she wakes again she's back in Paititi. It's days later, and Jonah tells her how they had all retreated when the temple began to shine so brightly they felt like the sun was only a dozen feet away. They had thought she was gone, killed during the last of the fighting. Then, hours later, the Crimson Fire had emerged from the woods, carrying her. She was left in view of the village before the other woman vanished back into the woods. They suspect she has returned to her duty of guarding the box and the dagger, if they weren't destroyed during the ritual.

She rests, and they hold a funeral for Unuratu. Jonah leaves, to go spend time with Abby, and Lara can't be happier that they found such a connection so quickly. She spends a few more weeks in Paititi, helping Etzli rebuild, and learn what he needs to rule. Then, she goes home.

She opens her home again, dusts off shelves and pulls down filthy curtains. The whole manor needs to be cleaned, and she thinks she might hire someone, a house keeper, or perhaps their old butler. She wonder's what he's doing now. She goes through her father's things, sees the maps he made, the treasures he looked for all his life. She puts her mother's paintings out on display around the house, repaints the study into a bright and airy room.

She still feels lost, though, in this empty manor that's too big for just her. After a while, she makes arrangements for the upkeep, then she packs a bag and gets on a plane, not even sure where she's going. She lets her feet and her heart guide her. She's barely surprised when she ends up in Siberia.

Sofia is glad to see her, embracing her like an old friend and excitedly showing her around the valley. They've grown, they've _prospered_ , since she was here last, and Lara is proud. They've built real homes now, not just ramshackle tents and lean-to's in the old ruins. They've opened a road down the mountain, and they trade their skills and pelts and ore for better clothes, better food, and a better life. They are thriving.

Lara settles in faster than she ever imagined, hunting with Sofia, gathering roots and berries, gardening, even chasing chickens. She laughs, and she begins to heal. The nightmares haven't stopped, but as the weeks pass, they grow less and less. For a while, she waited every night to see Jacob, but now that the end of the world has passed, he's gone again. She tries not to let herself feel the pain of loss all over again. She knows she let him go, that day in the fog, and she hasn't seen him since.

After several weeks, something begins to call her, and one night, deep in the darkness, she enters the hidden passage way, sealing it behind her, and she makes her way into the Lost City. She wanders for hours, reading the scripts on the walls, staring at the murals and the paintings. She sees their whole story laid out before her, and slowly she climbs to the central tower, to the place where it all ended. She can still see the mark on the floor where she smashed the Divine Source, and she sinks to the ground, running her hand over the pile of powder fine crystal that is all that remains.

“I came back, Jacob,” she whispers to the empty air. “I destroyed Trinity, and I saved the world. I nearly ended it in the process, but I think I've finally learned from the mistakes I made. The world doesn't need me now, I would probably do more harm than good. This was the only place I was ever truly happy, even if it was only for a moment. I think I could be happy here again. I only wish you were here.”

The wind blows around her suddenly, swirling and spinning and lifting the crystal powder like a cloud of snow on a sunny day. She looks around in confusion, since up until this moment, there wasn't a breath of wind, even this high up. She hears familiar footsteps behind her and her heart clenches as she turns, and there he is, less than three feet from her as he comes to a halt.

“How?” she asks, reaching for him, her fingers stopping just short of touching. She can't believe it.

“Faith, Lara,” Jacob smiles. “It's a powerful magic all on it's own. The Divine Source may have been destroyed, but there was enough power left in the remains for one wish to be granted. I was hoping you would come back.”

“So it was you,” she whispers. “In Peru. In my dreams. It was real?”

“Reality is what we make it,” he says and she laughs, stepping forward and launching herself into his arms. He is warm and solid, his arms wrapping around her and holding tightly, as if he'll never let go. She hopes he won't, because she never will. This is the greatest gift she has ever been given, a second chance with the man she loves, and she won't let anything pull her away again.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not....totally happy with the end, but then the end of the game was a bit messy. *shrug * I have one more story planned, actually, although I think I'm changing the tense next time. I can't keep this up, I continually fall back into my usual tense. Anyway, hope you liked. Click through to the next story if you want to read the smutty cave scene in full. ;)


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